John Blake (Bat Girl)
John Blake is a sergeant working for the Gotham City Police Department who became a trusted ally to Barbara Gordon during her time as Bat Girl. He was portrayed by Joseph Gordon Levitt from The Dark Knight Rises. Biography Early Life During his childhood, John's parents died when he was an infant child because of a gangster named Tony Zucco when they refused to pay him. John then lived in Gotham City's orphanage. He created a mask for himself by hiding his anger behind a smile. He and the orphans also idolized Bruce Wayne for being the "billionaire orphan". Thus, from his enabling wealth and losing his parents to crime, they thought he was Batman and made stories about it. But the other kids only saw it as just stories because Bruce's carefree personality didn't fit Batman's. Blake took the stories seriously when he sees the similar attempt at the playboy billionaire hiding his true angry nature when he visited the orphanage. Working With Bat Girl In 2015, John became a sergeant to the Gotham City Police Department while serving under Barbara's father Captain James Gordon. When he first came on the job, John demonstrated a high level of practical ability and Jim Gordon hailed him as a godsend and had begun to trust him. Also, during his tenure, he also brought down the crime boss Rupert Thorne and had other successes in dealing with the criminal rackets in Gotham; much of this was done with the help of a mysterious informant who was obviously Two-Face manipulating circumstances behind the scenes. It seemed that he was romantically interested in Barbara Gordon and that she had begun to return those feelings until John realized she was Bat-Girl without telling him. After he served Jim Gordon with the Arrest Warrant and jailed him, he joined Chief Clancy O' Hara in a rally in an attempt to get Gordon out of prison. Two-Face engineered a prison break to make Jim Gordon look guilty and eventually kill him since he blamed Gordon for his disfigurement. John helped Barbara save her father while in costume on the Gotham pier overlooking the harbor and decided to not interfere with Barbara's choice to become a vigilante. John even took the liberty of helping Barbara perfect her skills by getting her to train with Lucius Fox's son Luke Fox at a Mixed Martial Arts gym and even let Barbara help him work on cases assigned to him. In the episode "Red X", John impersonated a criminal known as Red X and tried to form a partnership with Slade Wilson but is tasked with retrieving two other computer chips. Barbara discovers that John wasn't telling the truth about working on another case. After Red X gathers the final computer chips, Slade appears, revealing he knew that John was Red X the whole time, and grabs the chips. Barbara and Team Arrow arrives at the scene and stop Red X while Slade escapes. John reveals himself and chases after Slade, who taunts John about their similarities. The two engage in combat, which ends with Oliver saving John from being killed by Slade, who is revealed to be a robot. After Team Arrow left to go bak to Star City in order to find Slade Wilson, Barbara later approaches John about the past events, telling him that Slade and he share one thing in common – their distrust of others Little did Barbara know, the only reason John trust in others is because of when Barbara faked her own death during Sonny Armacost's reign of terror over Gotham City just to work with Amanda Waller and ARGUS. John felt angry at Luke and Barbara for not telling him that Barry Allen was a superhero known as The Flash when they suspected that something was odd about him. However, John was able regain his friends' trust eventually and revealed to him his real name and to what happened to his parents. Barbara and Lucius Jr. panicked knowing that John would try to kill Tony Zucco for leaving him orphaned, however John ended up arresting him while still having the temptation to kill the gangster for what he has done. John is currently still working as with Barbara and Lucius Jr. in keeping Gotham City safe. Skills * Police training: John had received training as all Gotham City Police Department members do. * Expert marksman/Firearms: As a police detective, John is skilled in the use of firearms. * Expert hand-to-hand combatant: John takes classes in Mixed Martial Arts from Luke Fox and even taught Barbara with moves she couldn't understand. Personality John has a compassionate side, as he covered was willing to show up at the rally to convince the Judge to grant Captain Gordon a bail. John also seems to have trust issues like when he first met Barry Allen and Joe West, he suspected there was something odd about them since Joe claimed Barry was a forensic scientist in order to make everyone treat him seriously. John was then angry at Luke and Barbara for keeping Barry's secret secret from him, however he was able to overcome it in order to help them stop Peter Merkel. John was even pissed when he learned how Amanda Waller made Barbara fake her own death to come work for ARGUS after Sonny Armacost's attack towards Gotham City. Barbara was still eventually able to gain John's trust back. However, John secretly failed to trust his team with a secret he had on who killed his parents and when he impersonated Red X in an attempt to get close to Slade in order to stop him. John also can be very aggressive like when he created a mask in his youth in order to hide his smile. Trivia * Blake seems to be a combination of the first three Robin characters in the comics. Like both Dick Grayson and Jason Todd, he is an orphan who suffered the loss of both his parents at a young age. Also like Grayson, Blake joined the Gotham City Police Department, eventually being promoted to detective, and seems destined to take over the mantle of Batman. Much like Todd, he is an angry young man who first met Bruce Wayne near the latter's car, and was revealed as Robin late into a story arc. . * He is the second incarnation of Robin to bear the name as his real name rather than an alias like most versions, the first being the Robin of the 2006 comic book limited series Batman: Year 100. * Before he was revealed as Robin, Blake was rumored to be a number of characters including the Riddler, the Joker (due to his resemblance to Heath Ledger), Alberto Falcone, Black Mask and Azrael. Category:Bat Girl